


the door before me is open just enough

by torigates



Category: Psych
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In some relationships the couples would talk about how they knew right from the beginning that the other person was the one for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the door before me is open just enough

 

  
In some relationships the couples would talk about how they knew right from the beginning that the other person was the one for them. The one person with whom they were going to spend the rest of their life.

That wasn’t true for Juliet.

When she first met Shawn she had been torn between mild annoyance and outright distain. That had evolved somewhere along the line to fond amusement, and then to real affection, but she had _never_ known that things would work out between them.

She had hoped, certainly. She had wanted him for a long time. A long time. But Shawn was Shawn, and Juliet hadn’t quite allowed herself to believe he would let them be together. She knew him well enough to know that Shawn’s worst enemy was himself.

(Of course, later Shawn would claim that _he_ had always known, that he knew right from the start that they were going to end up together.

Juliet rolled her eyes. “No you didn’t,” she said.

Shawn put his hand to his head in an overly dramatic psychic pose. “But I did, Jules. But I did.”

She shook her head and laughed. Shawn could claim all he liked that he knew they would be together, but Juliet knew different. He hoped. They both hoped, and were lucky.)

It was probably the reason they were so reluctant to put any labels on what they were doing. Why they wanted to keep what they had just between them. Juliet sometimes felt like Shawn already belonged so much to the world around him, that if she shared the part that was just hers it would somehow slip through her fingers and he would be gone again.

They spent countless hours in Juliet’s apartment, just the two of them. Juliet ordered Chinese food, and she’d pay the delivery boy wearing nothing but Shawn’s shirt and her underwear. It made her feel reckless and free in a way she hadn’t in years, maybe not even since moving to Santa Barbara. The two of them ate the food on her bed, sitting cross legged facing each other. Shawn fed her pieces of sweet and sour pork, and tried to hoard the dumplings.

Afterwards, the cartons of leftovers discarded, Shawn kissed her and he tasted like a fortune cookie. _Love takes practice_ , hers had read. Juliet smiled into his mouth and pulled him down to her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and there wasn’t any more talking or laughing after that.

They touched hands in the station and walked side by side. Lassiter kept glaring at the two of them, but he never said anything. Juliet was grateful for that, she wasn’t sure what she would say to defend Shawn, to defend herself and her choices. It wasn’t that she regretted anything or was ashamed of them, it was just hard to get her head around their new reality.

They have lunch in the Psych office with Gus. Juliet watched the way Shawn and Gus squabbled over little things, and not so little things. Shawn had apparently forgotten to pay their electrical bill, and the Psych office had been without power the last two days.

“It’s like camping!” Shawn exclaimed.

Gus glared at him, and Juliet could just tell it was an argument Shawn had tried before to no avail.

“Don’t play, Shawn,” Gus said. “We need power.”

“Electricity is so bourgeois,” Shawn said with a fake yawn.

Gus sputtered incoherently and marched out of the room. Juliet turned her own glare on Shawn. He held up his hands.

“I paid it yesterday,” he said. “I just can’t help messing with him. He makes it so easy.”

Shawn smiled in that easy way he had, and Juliet felt her heart clench affectionately. He made everything look easy and Juliet was envious of that. She wanted to know how to walk through life in the same way he did. She wanted to open her heart to this wonderful, beautiful man, and have him there always, but she was afraid.

Finally, she just shook her head and smiled.

Shawn held out his hand and Juliet stood and crossed the office, coming to sit on his lap. He put his arm around her waist, anchoring her there. It felt steady and sure. She wanted to remember that feeling always, that sureness.

“You’re incorrigible.”

Shawn looked delighted. “Incorrigible? How very Austen esque of you, Detective O’Hara.” He squeezed her hip playfully.

She rolled her eyes. Juliet had long ago realised that she would never have Shawn completely figured out. Just when she thought she had him down, he’d throw something completely left field her way. It was one of the things she loved most about him. It was one of things she found most frustrating about him.

One thing she _did_ know, was the way Shawn always downplayed his own intelligence. He might act like he didn’t know what other people were talking about, but then he would make a throwaway comment like this one, and Juliet was willing to be a large portion of her paycheque that Shawn wasn’t only familiar with Austen, but that he had read a great deal of Victorian literature. She let it slide to protect his image.

“I still think you should apologize to Gus,” she told him.

Shawn pouted and stole a quick kiss. Juliet turned her face away.

“Gus,” she called.

He poked his head back into the room.

“Shawn has something he would like to say to you,” Juliet informed him.

Shawn muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Gus asked.

“I _said_ don’t be Colin Firth in _Pride & Prejudice_.”

Juliet glared.

“Fine. I paid the electric bill yesterday,” he said.

Gus straightened his shirt and came back into the room. He resumed eating his lunch as if nothing had happened. Nothing _had_ happened, Juliet supposed when you knew someone as long as Gus and Shawn had known each other.

Juliet made a mental note to ask him late just how exactly being Colin Firth was supposed to be an insult.

When she went back to the precinct, Chief Vick called Juliet into her office.

“About you and Mr. Spencer,” she started, and Juliet sucked in a breath. “See that you keep your private life separate.”

She exhaled. “Yes, chief.”

Vick dismissed her with a flick of her wrist. Juliet was almost out the door when she looked up again. “Detective O’Hara?” she called.

“Yes?” Juliet asked, pausing in the doorway.

“It’s about time,” Vick said with a smile.

Juliet only nodded.

Shawn met her at the end of the day, and they went back to her apartment. Juliet still wasn’t sure what they had between them, or even if or how it would work out, but she was hopeful.

Shawn smiled at her over his shoulder and she smiled back. _Love takes practice_.

That, she could do.


End file.
